Atlanta beat up on Roy Halladay this afternoon. They scored three in the first and four in the second and coasted from there to an 8-2 win over Philadelphia. Freddy Freeman accounted for the three runs in the first with his 21 home run of the season. Jason Heyward went 2 for 4 with 4 runs batted in and raised his average to a respectable .273. Mike Minor picked up the win to even his record at 10-10. Atlanta sits 5.5 back of Washington as the season winds down. The division title is out of the question. The wild card berth? The magic number to clinch a spot in that winner take all, 163rd game of the season is 3. It could come as soon as Monday if the Braves win and the Brewers lose. Atlanta has announced that Kris Medlen will get the start in that game. You can’t argue with the choice. He’s been hot lately. You can argue all day about the merits of this extra game, but Chipper Jones is not a fan. He called it dumb, then acknowledged the reasons why MLB and the fans wanted it in the first place. It stokes interest, keeps a lot of teams going. Then, in the next breath, he said he wished it was there last season. (The Red Sox Nation feels the same way, so don’t feel bad). Anyway, Chipper just passed Lou Gehrig on the all-time hit list. As he finishes his farewell tour, writers keep asking if he might come back for another season. After all, there’s been no drop off in his production. The answer is the same to everyone. The game itself is fine, it’s everything outside of it (the nagging injuries, etc.) that he could do without. I honestly believe he’s serious, but who knows what will happen when late January rolls around.